Horst in Translation ([email protected]) Opinions differ on how explicit a film on animal cruelty has to be in order to make the utmost impact. Being a big fan of the documentary "Earthlings" featuring Joaquin Phoenix' voice, I'm usually off the opinion that subtlety is not the solution, but depicting the blatant cruelty as it happens is the key. That's why I also ended up liking Georges Franju's very graphic take on the matter. The parallel to the workers was nicely done, especially the contrast between the early scenes of the amusement park and everything that followed afterward, but the real "highlight" of the film where the scenes from the horse slaughterhouse or those scenes where the hooves get cut off or the cow takes the hammer to head. It's really sad and heartbreaking, especially taking into consideration that not much has changed and the rise of vegetarianism and veganism has been matched, probably surpassed, by the general rise of the world population.The narration is pretty good, especially from the female, although reading about her tragic fate is kinda sad. Nicole Ladmiral wasn't even twenty back then, but shows a great deal of intonation. The film's a bit like "Earthlings" 60 years earlier, equally brutal though much shorter and I recommend this film a lot, especially to people who want to think about their eating habits and consider a change for the better. It's one of my favorite short films and documentaries from Franju and the 1940s. With works like this, especially how early in his career this was made, it's a pity the director has kinda vanished into oblivion to everybody but film history enthusiasts.

Pierre Radulescu There is a catharsis brought by art works that are painful to watch. In this case the catharsis does not come immediately. It takes time to sublimate the horrible experience, to get beyond it and to understand. To really understand.A 20 minute documentary made in 1949 by Georges Franju (and scored by Joseph Kosma), calmly depicting the everyday work in the abattoirs from the outskirts of Paris. The animals coming here with serenity, suddenly killed and, that's it, immediately skin and legs and head are apart, it all happens incredibly fast. Sometimes bits of life go on for a few seconds. It's horrible. The slaughters make this matter-of-factly, otherwise you cannot resist there.And as soon as you leave the slaughterhouse, it's normal life, that quiet poetry of normal life: sun, sometimes clouds, whisks of grass here and there, some debris, a pair of young lovers.And actually it's about death, about our death: we are always dying innocently, and death is just part of life: death is just that, matter-of-fact.

David Everyone who wants to see the brutal reality of a slaughterhouse, at least circa 1949 in Paris, should be open to seeing this film. Although some people seem to have come away thinking this is was an anti-meat movie, that is only their point of view. Yes, you see horrific images of horses, cows and sheep butchered. It will likely turn your stomach. But I doubt this documentary was made with the intention of turning people off meat.The director focuses on the people too: the man whose own leg had to be cut off after an accident, for example. And it is clear that this business is just a job to many of the workers, and there is no moralizing about it.It is difficult to watch. But it is the truth (I guess); and really, if you think about it, the animals in this film are arguably treated better (killed quickly) than in that recent undercover PETA video of downer cows.

david varty This film works on many different levels. As a boy living in a small northern town I remember the Abattoir, on the edge of town, a large imposing Victorian building. Across the road,a playing field, with young people kicking a ball about. In the distance the imposing lake land fells. Inside the Abattoir were scenes exactly like 'Le Sang' except there were no horses and all animals stunned with captive bolt pistols. The skill of the workers was incredible, their humour brilliant, and all of them liked animals, it was only their job that demanded they had to kill and dissect them.Le Sang depicts exactly what happened in all the Abattoirs of Europe at the time of filming! The trade is ruthless, Skilled, shocking,wet, dirty, smelly but never wantonly cruel, just efficient, but most of all shocking to those who never set foot in an abattoir.A superb subject for surrealism- but also a historical record, no more do we use the pole axe or the pithing cane when killing cattle!!